


A Matter of Charity

by eveninganna



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Bonding, F/M, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-09
Updated: 2012-04-09
Packaged: 2017-11-03 07:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/379134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveninganna/pseuds/eveninganna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Nico watched her in awe, feeling grateful that a girl like her would want someone as selfish as him around, and actually relish in his company.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Matter of Charity

**Author's Note:**

> A drabble written (super late) for the prompt Rachel/Nico, "you got a quarter?" on the pjo_fic_battle comm. Very short, and really only slight Rachel/Nico, although it's definitely there, which makes me feel a bit guilty. Also not at all as comedic as the prompt would suggest, but oh, well.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was always a charitable girl, and she had grown into being an even more charitable woman. Although Nico would never openly tell her so, he was rather impressed by her selflessness, her compassion for others, her almost inhuman level of empathy. He knew that some would argue that her behavior was such only to piss of her father (which may be true on some level, but with Rachel Elizabeth Dare involved, everything was bound to be complicated), but the idea that she had built her entire personality on something as trivial as being the opposite of what her Warren Dare expected/wanted, was absolutely ridiculous.

Compassion was something that could not easily be faked, and in Nico's honest opinion (and he knew a lot on the matter) empathy was not an emotion or trait that could be impersonated, or learned. And if you were born with the ability to feel someone else's pain as your own, to absolutely understand what they were going through even if you yourself had never experienced it, you were a unique person indeed.

And so Nico watched Rachel in awe- watched her fundraise for the art programs at public school's, watched her volunteer at soup kitchens, watched her teach young cancer patients the basic fundamentals of sketching, always patient, always calm and understanding, escalating in her manners of giving- and he felt almost grateful that a girl like Rachel would keep someone as selfish as himself around, and actually relish in his company.

So as she slowly made him feel a flurry of emotions that were so alien to himself, ones he had been sure he would never quite feel again, it wasn't until he witnessed the smallest thing yet- and that's how it always works, isn't it? It's the miniscule, insignificant in comparison events that finally make you realize something huge, something that was always there- that he finally understood.

They stood on a busy street corner, about to enter a cafe (one of the many Rachel "forced" him to go to, or at least Nico made it seem like he was unwilling- really he went because Rachel was there and for whatever reason he just wanted to be wherever she was) when she spun around, seemingly troubled.

As he turned around to see what she was looking at, Rachel asked him if he had any change on him. He pulled some quarters out of his pocket quickly, asking why she needed the change (you'd think a girl as rich as Rachel would have plenty of change on her all the time, but one of the many odd things Nico had learned about rich people from Rachel was that they never used it. It was bills for them- large ones, more often than not- and bills only), as he dropped it into her hand.

She gestured towards an old, battered Toyota parked by the curb, and then to the meter by it, which was blinking a purple-red. The owner of said car was no where in sight.

And even though he had put two and two together already, even though he had gone out with her knowing, based on sheer experience, that some random act of kindness would occur, it wasn't until she said those next few words, that he really understood.

"Oh," she said, smiling sheepishly, gesturing towards the meter again. "I just want to pay of their meter for them."

Furthermore, it was then, when she spoke those words, that he understood.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was a flawless human being.


End file.
